InformationWeek reports that China has banned trading virtual goods for real
money, making the practice of "gold farming" illegal (thanks
Slashdot). The report quotes
a 2008 survey conducted by Richard Heeks at the University of Manchester
estimating that between 80% and 85% of the world's gold farmers are in China,
and says this of the new ruling:

The Chinese government estimates that
trade in virtual currency exceeded several billion yuan last year, a figure that
it claims has been growing at a rate of 20% annually. One billion yuan is
currently equal to about $146 million.

The ruling is likely to affect many of the more than 300 million Internet users
in China, as well as those in other countries involved in virtual currency
trading. In the context of online role playing games like World of Warcraft,
virtual currency trading is often called gold farming.

The most popular form of virtual currency in China is called "QQ coins," a form
of virtual credit issued by Tencent.com.

Tencent.com, which has about 220 million registered users -- about as many as
Facebook -- is quoted in the Chinese government news release as "resolutely"
supporting the new rule. The government justifies its ban on virtual currency
trading as a way to curtail gambling and other illegal online
activities.

Some large prison sentences. Some shootings. Some IP blocking. They'll put an end to it. There are many reasons for China doing this, most of them well-intentioned.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Totalitarian governments espouse all sorts of good intentions and future Utopias but never deliver. This is no different. The whole idea of China going communist was a Utopian delusion. You can tell things like this will fail when the goal is in a 'better future.' Tomorrow.. Tomorrow.. Never right here, right now.

Why not put some blame on the spamming gold farmers on Blizzard's and other MMO developers? Hasn't it come out that this is a revenue generating incentive for them?

Player communities could develop proxies that filter the spammers on the network level before your client gets the spam. The real solution to avoiding spam is in our hands, not the governments of the world. Same goes for dealing with gambling and obsessive/compulsive computer use. My $.02.

Some large prison sentences. Some shootings. Some IP blocking. They'll put an end to it. There are many reasons for China doing this, most of them well-intentioned. Hopefulyl this will make MOGs a lot less of a nuisance to play.

“That's it. You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college!”

They do sentence more people to capital punishment, and execute them, than any other country in the world. Something like 10,000 people in 2005 and between 5,000-6,000 in '07 (figures shamelessly from Wikipedia). They definitely put Texas to shame.

Not as bad as what they do to citizens in Iran. The Clevers they used to hack their citizens is BOE.

Are you sure they take that position or is that how they sound in your "space"

'Cause I am pretty sure that it is the Green Progressives that bloviate about the US being to blame for all the Earth's ills. Too bad they are unwilling to act responsibly by offing themselves to reduce their own "footprint".

They do sentence more people to capital punishment, and execute them, than any other country in the world. Something like 10,000 people in 2005 and between 5,000-6,000 in '07 (figures shamelessly from Wikipedia). They definitely put Texas to shame.

I appreciate what China is trying to do, and know China is pretty good at censoring just about anything they want in the average citizen's lives, but this won't change anything.

And the funny thing is the PRC spent approximately $800 million on their so-called Golden Shield internet firewall and it's been said to be pretty ineffective with its intended purpose. It was more the laziness and hassle of individual people not wanting to work through proxies and whatnot that kept them going to many censored sites.

China will just be the final amount that pushes us over.

In college I wrote a paper surveying powerful political hegemonies and their penchant for conflicts. I came to the conclusion the most industrialized countries with broad-reaching cultures and high economic output coupled with high military expenditures produced the vast majority of the world's strategic conflicts. Especially if some economically powerful countries or continents fell under the influence of a superpower (i.e. West Europe and the United States).

I know, a big obvious "duh!" comes out. But the interesting note was in the statistics tracked for conflicts started by, or at least highly influenced by, these countries. Of all the conflicts revolving around resource and pacification (humanitarian missions, military actions meant to undermine mass-genocide, etc), the United States had played the biggest role.

You take away peoples services to do stuff like this, and alternatives always appear to take their place.

China will force a lot of people to hide themselves "underground", and spend a lot of $$ investigating/arresting/fining/jailing/prosecuting these people with no real return.

Take out some of the big players in gold farming, and you'll spawn 50x more smaller players hiding behind loopholes and new services.

I appreciate what China is trying to do, and know China is pretty good at censoring just about anything they want in the average citizen's lives, but this won't change anything.

EDIT: Not to mention the fact that gold farming in the US and Europe is about to go through the roof now that a lot of competition from China is temporarily out of service until they find a new way to sell their gold.